Friday, July 8, 2011

My big 4-year-old

Delaney knows that her birthday is in July, but she doesn't know it's today. It's going to be hard to restrain myself from saying, "Happy birthday!" but I'll be giving her a few extra hugs, both from me and from her daddy who misses her terribly. This day means so much to us, the day that Delaney came into our world and turned it upside down.

We already celebrated her birthday in May, together with Annie's, and I thought that would be the end of it. But on one of the last days in June, when I said it was almost July, her eyes lit up and she said, "My birthday is in July!" I said, "That's right, it is." So we'll be having another little celebration. We're going to wait until Tim Sr gets here on the 14th. We'll probably do it the following Sunday.

She will get a new bike with training wheels from Daddy. Right now I'm trying to decide between a 14-inch bike and a 16-inch one. I think I'll have to look and see which one I think will fit her best. She's outgrown her tricycle (funny, since she only got good at riding it just in the last year!), and now she has trouble riding it because her legs are way too long for it. I think it's time to pass the trike on to Annie. So that Annie gets a little something new too (which normally would not be a concern, but this year I did already celebrate their birthdays together), I will get her her own helmet.

Other than that, she'll have cake, ice cream, a few balloons, and I'm sure she will be a happy girl.

Wow, it's been four years of Delaney, already. . At 4, she is as sweet, curious, good-natured, creative, and funny as ever.

Here are some of her favorite things in no particular order:

She loves to play pretend games. She's always instructing Annie and me on what we are pretending at any given time. "Mama, you be the mama elephant and we'll be the babies." Or frogs, or puppies, or kitties. We play "babysitter" with her baby doll, Baby Violet. Sometimes she wants to pretend that she and Annie have just been born, and she says, "Mama, what do you want to name your newborn babies?" If I tell her "Delaney and Annalise," she approves. But lately, I've been saying, "How about Harry and Rufus?"

She loves to play in the sand and water, and I wish I had the energy to take her every day to the beach or to a pool. In the pool, she jumps in with just her floaty wings on.

She loves the little animals she finds around the yard or neighborhood. She loves to hold them and look at them, and she cries when she has to let them go. I feel bad for making her let them go, but I want to teach her that the animals' home is outside, and she can look at them and enjoy them for a little while, but then let them go.

She loves to paint pictures, and lately her pictures have gotten so good. I can tell what they are! She made a picture of a turtle that was really cute and colorful the other day, and I like her smiley faces too. It's a great way to pass the time on a hot afternoon.

She was painting and telling a story.

She likes patterns and things that rhyme. She'll say something like, "Red, white, red, white -- that's a pattern, right, Mama?" She'll try out a couple words together and say, "Do they rhyme?" Sometimes they do, and sometimes they come nowhere close to rhyming, but they're related in some other way.

Today I'm looking back at all the memories of Delaney from the past four years, and looking with happiness and gratitude at the beautiful child she is inside and out. I can't wait to see what changes in her the next year will bring.

About Me

Hi! I'm Rachael: Catholic, Marine wife, coffeeholic, clutterphobe, free range parent, and on again/off again runner. I am hopelessly awkward but I mean well. This blog is my journal, occasionally cheap therapy, and most of all a fun way update faraway family and friends. Welcome!